I was tasked by Airchive.com to provide some secondary coverage of the Boeing 787-9 first flight. It was my first opporrunity to cover a Boeing event from the press area. After a few minor delays, the 787-9 took to the air as planned and made a 5 hour flight without event and touched down at the flight testing center at Boeing Field.

Along with my son and good hiking friend Trent, we set off to Artists' Point near Mount Baker for an overnight hike to Ptarmigan Ridge. The USFS service station indicated that there was snow on the trail and route finding required and they were right. Though only about 10% of the trail was snow-covered, the spots that were were usually deep and fairly steep. The views began immediately and only got better as we progressed.

Driving in traffic the other day I was trying to name all of the instant warning signs on seeing another driver that will cause me grief on my drive. I know it's not a true mathematical representation but I thought it might be fun to present my findings like the Drake Equation, the equation designed to calculate the number of extaterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy.

A March 7 X5-class flare delivered a glancing blow to our ionosphere and led to over 24 hours of auroral activity. I headed south to avoid the clouds over Seattle and ended up near Black Diamond and captured the dim, but active display.

The aurora, as visible from our area, rarely get the waving and curling arms you see in photos from Norway and the Yukon, but we do get to see the full extent of the rays, from the green base to the violet and red tops.